How to Get a Small Business Cyber Security Plan

Cyber security is a huge issue for small businesses. According to statistics cited by Forbes, “the cost of cybercrime in the U.S. was approximately $100 billion” in 2013.

Another statistic cited in the article stated that “in 2015, the British insurance company Lloyd’s estimated that cyber attacks cost businesses as much as $400 billion a year.”

Worse yet, according to the article, the cost of data breaches is expected to grow to $2.1 trillion globally by 2019.

No business is immune to cyber threats—cybercriminals will attack any business, regardless of size. In fact, many small businesses are easier to attack than the Targets, JPMorgan Chases, and Home Depots of the world.

This is why every small business needs a cyber security plan. The question is: how can you get one?

Getting Started

First, every small business needs to start with a realistic assessment of its needs, resources, and risk factors.

This includes having a detailed inventory of all devices connected to your business’ network. Making an inventory can be tricky for some businesses, especially if there are employees bringing personal devices for use at work.

Additionally, consider your business’ staff. How many employees do you have? What are the job roles in your company? Who needs access to what information? How many man-hours are required to manage your business’ network and how many people do you have that are qualified to do that work?

Any cyber security plan should start with your employees, as they are one of the biggest risk factors any business has.

By making a thorough assessment of your risks and resources, you’ll be in a better position to create a comprehensive cyber security plan for your business, and to know which assets you’ll need to acquire to put that plan into motion.

Picking the Right Set of Cyber Security Tools to Meet Your Needs

Once you have a comprehensive list of your resources and your needs, it’s time to start looking into the different tools that are out there that can be used to enhance your business’ cyber security.

Employee training is a basic need that every business should address sooner or later.

Whether you manage this matter internally using available management and HR tools or bring in a third party to handle this for you should be determined by what tools you already have and how feasible it is for your company or a third party to provide training to all of your employees.

Aside from employee training, there are many technologies and tools available to companies via the cloud to provide critical cyber security services such as:

Data encryption

Disaster recovery

Firewall

Antivirus/antimalware

Encryption

Security vulnerability patching

Intrusion detection/prevention systems

Security event logging

Just to name a few of the tools that companies need to use to protect against modern business threats.

Building Strong Cyber Security Fast with a Cloud Service Provider

While many of the above tools are available as individual services, there are secure cloud service providers who can bundle many of these tools under a single umbrella—helping to ensure that each layer of security is present and compatible with your cloud-based infrastructure.

Using many different security tools is preferable to relying on any one layer of security, as each additional layer makes it that much harder for cybercriminals to breach your security and steal or corrupt your data.

Even better, some cloud service providers can ease the burden of managing key aspects of your cyber security plan by giving you access to their team of security experts. Rather than hiring an expensive team of professionals to manage key cyber security tasks internally, the cloud provider’s team can manage services such as security & OS patching for you. This minimizes your man-hours spent on basic tasks that don’t really advance your business’ goals.

Of course, not just any cloud partner will do. To build a business infrastructure that’s strong enough to stand up to modern threats, you’ll need a cloud service provider with industry-leading security measures, up-to-date certifications in security standards, and a dedication to building infrastructures that are secure from the ground up.